The First Step To Fitness Success: Understand Fitness Progression

 One of the main reasons that I decided to offer information for free is because many of my fellow fitness professionals have caved in to popular trends (in order to thrive in the industry) by marketing “hardcore” or “boot camp” style training that do not take into account how to progress in your training. 

This assumes that you the consumer don’t want logic; you want results…NOW! And they and the rest of the fitness industry targets key words and phrases that get you excited; to get you to BUY. But just jumping into an exercise program, no matter how great it claims to be, is simply a waste of your time. All successful fitness programs must progress over time.

About 30 years ago or so I read an article in Muscle and Fitness magazine where a young wannabe bodybuilder was describing to a well known professional bodybuilder how a particular exercise made his muscles burn...”so bad”. The experienced bodybuilder laughed at him and said “I can hold a match under your back side and that would burn too”. The point is simple; you need to do the right things at the right time in order to be successful.

In person, it would be very easy for me to see your level of fitness to show you how to progress and to get results indefinitely but since I don’t know the first thing about you, you will have to learn how to progress on your own; here's how.

Fitness Progression 101

Very simply, your goal should be to make progress; to move forward towards your goal. You could step out the door right now and run and run…even run till you throw up! But tomorrow, parts of your body you didn’t even know you had would be sore. That is, if you didn't keel over from heart failure or if something didn’t snap!

I cannot tell you where to begin without knowing your current level of fitness but no matter where you start, progressing is the same. 

STEADILY INCREASE YOUR FITNESS LEVEL…THEN REST

Runners (good ones) know how to progress because they train with what they call the 10% rule, which simply means that they increase their training (endurance or intensity), no more than 10% every week or even two. This rule can be successfully applied to any form of training to ensure steady progress but without undue stress or strain, excessive soreness, or injury.

BUILD FOR THREE WEEKS…REST FOR ONE

It’s important for both your body AND mind to schedule rest periods. This allows your body a time to repair itself and grow stronger and for your mind to release stress. We are not talking about lying on the couch here but instead, training with less intensity for a week
.

So your training gets harder from week to week for three weeks and then during the fourth week you will simply cut back to a level similar to WEEK (2). The rest week for the following month will be similar to week (3) of the first month and so on.

How To Make Progress By Time, Not Repetition

We all have days when we are either stronger or weaker. This could be due one of several reasons; diet, stress level, how well we rested the night before, or even our natural biorhythms. So instead of worrying about numbers, I like the idea of training by time instead.

Using time instead of repetitions makes your bad days good and your good days great! On days when you are feeling stronger you won’t stop simply because you reached a particular number of repetitions and similarly, on days when you feel weak, you might pause for a second or two, and then do a few more repetitions until the time is up.

SCHEDULING

 Progress Week to Week

Perform each exercise for a specific period of time and then each week increase that time. For example; during the first week perform each exercise for thirty seconds. During the second week perform each exercise for 45 seconds. During the third week do each exercise for 60 seconds. During the fourth week you cut back (rest) and do each exercise like the second week or 45 seconds each.

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
Exercise Time	30 sec each	45 sec each	60 sec each	45 sec each

You should plan to train a minimum of three days per week, separated by a rest day in between. Again, you will have to be the judge of where you begin. If you have never exercised for example, perhaps two days doing a whole body strength routine and a third day of strictly cardio (walking, jogging, cycling, swimming etc) would be a good start.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Whole Body Strength training	Off	Whole Body Strength Training	off	Cardio of Your Choice	Off	Off

PROGRESSING FOREVER!

Just as only you know where to start your training, you must also decide how to progress in the future too! This will of course be decided by your personal goals. While some people may reach their goals using the above training plan, there will be many more that do not and that’s okay…you will simply need to keep progressing!

Here are some ways to make continued progress based on the above (listed in the order they should be added).

• Add days. Replace the cardio-only day with another whole body strength day
• Begin again at week #1 (30 seconds) but do the entire routine twice during each workout
• Increase the amount of weight used